Just about every time I go someplace on public transit, I see big groups of teenagers: girls, boys, mixed groups. Sometimes I also see them walking around the city. Today I went on a “field trip“ with a bunch of other knitting friends to visit a couple of fabric stores, have lunch, and just generally walk around a cool part of town, 7 of us in total. I’d describe us as more or less middle-aged (I’m the youngest, only one other is still working, with the rest being young retirees plus one visiting MIL who must be in her mid-to-late 70s – who was one of the faster walkers in the group). Everywhere we went, on buses and in stores people reacting to us as though they just weren’t used to seeing large groups of adult women. The bus driver laughed, people in stores said “wow, where do you come from? as if we were led by a tour guide with a sign. Do grown-ass women just not generally move in packs?

It was a lot of fun. Nobody bought fabric except some ribbon, but one shop had amazing Liberty of London prints – last time I saw that many I was actually in the Liberty store in London. We ended up having lunch at a Thai place that’s one of the most popular in Portland (Pokpok) with legendary long lines – but was empty at lunchtime. And we visited Citizen Ruth, where I debated between buying RBG earrings (but didn’t, because I have long hair and I don’t think the tiny images of her face would be visible), bracelets with sayings like Feminist as Fuck, and so on. (I did buy a couple items that will probably become gifts.)

On the way home I stopped and bought milk that is pasteurized but not ultrapasteurized for tomorrow’s adventure, making mozzarella with the cheese-making kit I got for Christmas. I started a batch of sourdough artisan bread dough yesterday, so I can have some of it with a loaf of that – or be nice and save it for when Ted comes back from the business trip he’s on.